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Host a Fall Poetry Tea

Our fabulous spring poetry tea had not even ended last May when I looked at the other moms and said, “We have got to do this again!”

Once again, we dressed up the back porch, cooked up some good food, found poems to read and recite, and had a wonderful time. The kids even worked on an impromptu performance of “A MidSummer Night’s Dream” while we prepared the food.

Hosting a poetry tea is not difficult and should not be intimidating. If you are wanting to do your own, here are some ideas to get you started.

Fall Poetry Tea Menu

We decided to do a luncheon for our tea. Unlike the spring tea we did not work to match up our dishes with a poem theme.

We love this ritual and want it to be something we do often, so we decided to make it easier to increase the likelihood that it will get done. To that end we also stayed with paper serving products for the tea.

The potato soup and molasses cookies were the biggest hits. The apple cider was loved by the adults and got about a 50% approval rating from the kids — some loved it, others asked for something else.

Fall Poetry Tea Decor

I forgot the fresh flowers! I was so disappointed in myself. To me they are an important part of the tea party set-up and add a special touch to the day. To compensate we collected fall decor items from around house to decorate our tables and party area.

Fall Poetry Ideas

We had a wide variety of poems presented at the tea from personal compositions to a Shakespeare recitation. Here are some of the resources we used.

Molasses Cookie Recipe

Jessica has agreed to share her molasses cookie recipe with us. These were yum!

1 and 2/3 cup butter

1 Cup sugar

1 Cup Dark Brown sugar

1/2 Cup Molasses

2 eggs

4 and 1/2 cups flour

4 tsp baking soda

1 tsp ground cloves

1 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp ginger

1/2 tsp salt

coating: 1/2 cup granulated sugar

Cream butter and sugar, mix in eggs and molasses.

Mix all dry ingredients together and add in batches to the liquid ingredients.

Roll into balls the size of golf balls and roll in sugar.

Bake at 375 for 9-11 min.

Don’t be intimidated by throwing these kinds of parties — your kids will love whatever you come up with! Be sure to follow us on Facebook and share any of your own poetry tea pictures right to our Facebook page. We would LOVE to see them.

Pam is the author of The Your Morning Basket Guide and Plan Your Year: Homeschool Planning for Purpose and Peace. She also is the host of three popular podcasts -- The Homeschool Snapshots Podcast, Your Morning Basket, and The Homeschool Solutions Show. She lives in the Deep South with her husband and three kids, where she is the go-to lady for great curriculum recommendations or a just a pep talk on a rough day.